FAMILY SECRETS

 

Madness

Like a split lip

Sometimes makes it hard to speak

So much lit up my mother’s family

The side with writers, composers and

Yes, someone who stole from a church

And murdered a priest

 

The secret is out, mother--

How can you hold madness in?

Your uncle swung naked

From a rope tied to a chapel chandelier

Landing like baby Jesus

At the foot of the altar

During high mass

Front page news!

Another haunted

Public squares in Bogotá

Claiming to have the secret of the universe

Inscribed on a folded piece of paper

In his breast pocket

Faded as he was

The lost man

Your family invited for soup Sundays

The day of the Lord when

Amid the din of tolling bells

And sepulchral glory of hosts

Madness came to visit

 

I count them one by one

The cavorting ghosts

Amnesiac and closeted saints

The forgotten members of my family

We forgot to name

As I share tea with my mother.

  

Arya F. Jenkins is a Colombian-American poet and writer whose poems have been published in many journals and zines. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her poetry chapbooks are: Jewel Fire (AllBook Books, 2011), Silence Has A Name (Finishing Line Press, 2016), and Love & Poison (Prolific Press, 2019). Her short story collection Blue Songs in an Open Key (Fomite Press, 2018) is available here: www.aryafjenkins.com.